Guild Wars 2

Wow. How did you people fight against mobs 10 levels higher and in multiples even? Its like we’re playing a different game. I do love mesmer but please don’t dismiss that it is hard to level a mesmer. For new players, its hard in the sense that theres a lot of things you need to know like:
-never open with a phantasm unless you want it to be one-shotted(especially zerker/warden).
-gs mirror blade and winds of chaos have bounce range half of their attack range which is not mentioned in the skill (which is kinda counter intuitive for gs)
I think the problem lies with the scaling of the illusions health and Signet of Illusion’s delay in applying doesnt help. A level 80 illusion can better withstand a level 80 monster compared to the lower levels (could be just me though but thats what i felt) Dead clones/phantasm=dps loss

daoz.6153:

Wow. How did you people fight against mobs 10 levels higher and in multiples even? Its like we’re playing a different game. I do love mesmer but please don’t dismiss that it is hard to level a mesmer. For new players, its hard in the sense that theres a lot of things you need to know like:
-never open with a phantasm unless you want it to be one-shotted(especially zerker/warden).
-gs mirror blade and winds of chaos have bounce range half of their attack range which is not mentioned in the skill (which is kinda counter intuitive for gs)
I think the problem lies with the scaling of the illusions health and Signet of Illusion’s delay in applying doesnt help. A level 80 illusion can better withstand a level 80 monster compared to the lower levels (could be just me though but thats what i felt) Dead clones/phantasm=dps loss

You got to understand that (and yes im saying this) alot of people do not eithier upgrade thier gears to match thier level or. they upgrade thier gears as in say ur lvl 35 and ur like ooo i wanna save money so ill buy a cheap masterwork set. yea.. no. keep up with the gear as in get the Rare ones the damage in between the rare set and the masterwork or fine set is a verry verry big difference aswell as the armor and accessorys.

The only 2 rare sets that will cost Gold to upgrade is the lvl 35 and 60. and 70 weapons is wat i only do at that lvl to make it to 80 with no problems thats just about it if ur lvl 46 still using masterwork armor and weapons yea ur going to feel a bit underpowered i sure did when i thought that way to save a little bit of cash. But when i got that Rare set my god the damage i was doing was crazyyyy and then when i got my exotic set … i almost cried tears of joy.

And how i open up in all my fights as a GS power build i basically izerker all the time first( Yes i do.) then follow up mirror blade shatter that set throw out mirror images confuse shatter that one. mobs usually dead after my first shatter if not switch to my sword and just blurred frenzy away.

Honestly, mesmer leveling is one of the absolute safest and smoothest professions to level. Between illusions tanking and all the defensive staff skills you can build full on offensive and barely ever risk dying. Elementalist for example is a far more risky profession to level with.

Other than it being slow, there is not much else to complain about. Lets try and focus our complaints on real issues, so the 1.5 devs working on balancing this game don’t get lost in a sea of BS.

EsLafiel.4517:

Rashiakas.2459:

And you are doing that on level 1-40?

On lvl 10 I was doing lvl 20+ area’s, just fine doing champs in them as well.

At lvl 30, I did nothing but dgns from their, at lvl 42 first time I did Cm 3men.

Never had a problem at any lvl,, taking on much higher lvl mobs and multy of them.

Ok, i have a lvl 80 mesmer myself, my only lvl 80 char cos after playing a mesmer i just cant stand other classes for to long. I never had a problem lvling it, i find myself being the last to die or the only alive in several dungeons even when i was the only1 without a single thoughtness and vit point on gears, but…..
How the kitten you managed to solo lvl 20 champs on lvl 10??? Even at lvl 80 i have some troubles with champs my lvl sometimes. Ok, i took a long break and im very rusted and i dont have defensive gears(i know, i need to make myself some to use with a staff), but still!

I’m lvling a mesmer atm and am finding it a little difficult as well. I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a lot about the class I have yet to learn which I think is really the point of this thread and not a whine session.

So instead of (and I don’t mean all of you) going on and on about how at level 2 you ran over to Sparkfly Fen, pulled the whole map at once, and then one shotted the lot of em’ without a scratch, maybe just some pointers about how to actually deal with multiple pulls, CC, and such.

I never considered it “hard” to level. It’s actually easy because you hardly die as a mesmer. On the other hand it’s quite inefficient when compared to other classes. Working on a mob or group of mobs and then seeing a warrior faceroll in feels quite unsatisfying. I’m not sure if “mesmers are strong in PvP” is a good argument to make them inefficient (I don’t say weak here) in PvE.

I think I’ve said somewhere before that I too had a great time leveling my Mesmer in maps 5-8 level higher and also enjoying soloing swarms and champs and events I would never do on another class, yes even the seemingly op warrior.

Mesmers have alot of fantastic utility, evasive, and quick responsive abilities that can keep u invincible if played right. When built and geared and traitor right (making sure ur updated) ur dps is also phenomenal with most weapons yes even the staff

My experience has been that my staff melts targets as fast as a power gs

Here’s some tips as to how with the weapons I like to use :

Staff – you WANT THE AGGRO. Staff Illusions are uber important. Clones stack conditions that just melt your target. Right off the bat when engaging any target I have two clones and one warlock up. However bc these are key to staff dps you cannot let then die so always attack ur target first and hope that they stick to you. Once they do things get pretty easy, you are a player and can kite, dodge, position, phase retreat and even decoy and blink and u can stay pretty safe. Second important tip is to use chaos storm as protection for your clones, it will grant aegis alot of the times and it keeps ur illusions up longer and it is quite a significant difference. Also kite in a small circle between and around ur illusions running through chaos storm getting defensive buffs, phase retreating for chaos armor, and putting more conditions on targets. Targets melt. I also find that I can deal with swarms easily with staff. The staff creates high survivability while it’s not like you actually have physical aoe, sometimes i tab and put a clone on each target lure them into chaos storm or plop one around them and kite forever and watch them melt. In fact the illusions are so amazing that there are times where I stick two clones on one target and put a warlock and myself on another and both die at the same time just one from clone conditions as long as I keep them alive

GS – you don’t want aggro. GS is like an on the go instant illusion machine u kinda want to keep them at max range and throw out ur zerkers, mirror blade, clones etc and it doesn’t matter if they die, but get the zerkers first hit in. It’s kind of like a burst weapon? Not really saying its burst dps persay but u just throw things out as fast as possible. I seem to like shattering with gs illusions cuz u don’t rly need them for long periods of time and they rly won’t survive that long being in melee range. YOU however need to stay far and stay alive. Don’t forget that knock back. I think GS despite its nice damage output and numbers u see, it shouldn’t be a weapon u stick to all the time while levelling bc it is mostly offensive it leaves you vulnerable defensively. a GS needs a nice secondary to swap to every time u bust ur cd. Staff or sword combinations can be nice synergy

SWORD – mainhand sword is a lot of fun and u see lots of great damage numbers but don’t forget we’re not tanks, so only spend seconds in melee range. Timing is super important for melee bc u don’t want to jump into a aoe or the boss attacking or something always time it for when the target just uses a cd or skill. Fight like a ninja u don’t need to stick to ur target, run around and wave ur sword like an idiot and dodge roll all the time. Of course I don’t need to mention that u should always go in for a blurred frenzy pretty much exclusively but if u need to stay melee yeah, u don’t need every second to be hitting the target we can’t really afford that while you’re not invulnerable. That was a major problem i had when levelling was how i thought i needed to not waste time and hit every second. We need to run around like ninjas for melee or we can take a lot of damage. Send in clones first you don’t want aggro definitely. Swap as soon as weapon swap is avail

From what I said u can tell I’m quite bias towards staff. But staff requires alot of thinking and a lot of work to be effective or efficient if u can get it to that point. Right now at 80 I no longer run with staff primarily bc I am capable of other weapons . But when you level I highly recommend staff if you can adapt to it and understand how it works. It is essential to keeping u invincible and also melting targets. The best synergy I’ve found is when u pair staff and gs. It is kiting ultimate. You can literally go on forever and never die while chain pulling bc kiting sucks in terms of aggroing new mobs, yet u still survive in swarms xD it helps that for staff u want aggro and for gs u don’t want aggro, that way u can swap when the situation is needed if u have aggro u go staff and melt targets while keeping urself safe. If theyre going after all ur illusions then u throw ur gs stuff at them and deal some nice damage from afar whetheror not ur illusions are alive

Good luck!

Mesmer is not that hard to level up, I am a lazy guy so I just use staff all alone when I lvl up. Do not see any problem, even encounter with multiple mobs, still doing fine. I have to admit Mesmer may not hit mobs directly hard like other classes, but Mesmer is more fun to play. About phantasm health, I using 1 trait that increase phantasm 20% life and there is a signet of illusions to boost phantasm health too. Usually phantasm can hold about 2-3 hits at least (not including boss).

Aank.4837:

I’m lvling a mesmer atm and am finding it a little difficult as well. I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a lot about the class I have yet to learn which I think is really the point of this thread and not a whine session.

So instead of (and I don’t mean all of you) going on and on about how at level 2 you ran over to Sparkfly Fen, pulled the whole map at once, and then one shotted the lot of em’ without a scratch, maybe just some pointers about how to actually deal with multiple pulls, CC, and such.

Its the same concept as playing a staff ele. or any ranged type spec with any character really.

PLAY keep away.. all the time especially if ur going with GS/Staff i dont understand how people are having this much of a hard time lvling mesmer if anything i say ele was way more annoying to lvl to 80 than this all i do is throw out izerker mirror images then mind wrack bam mobs dead ? i dont see how ppl are dieying for no reason at all keep ur distance learn to kitten dodge and kite man this is simple basics of playing the game if its really that hard as u all say just craft ur way to 80 and be done with it and stop complaining.

To be honest, I don’t remember having a hard time leveling my mesmer with GS/staff but then again if was before the nerfs/bugs to phantasm so maybe that could explain it too.

Mesmer is probably my favorite class, aside from the thief and warrior. There are simply so many ways you can play it, it’s utterly ridiculous. The number of viable builds is possibly the greatest I’ve seen in any GW2 class aside from warrior and elementalist (though every class has tons of viable builds).

Here’s just a few:

• Confusion mesmer (20/0/0/20/30) [Glamour type – my current sPVP and WvW build – Staff + Scepter/Torch]
• Condition mesmer (30/0/20/0/20) [Additional bouncing type w/ Staff + any weapon – I use Sword/Torch]
• Tank mesmer (0/5/30/30/5) [increases your own toughness, health, and overall suvivability but sacrifices a lot of DPS – not recommended if you want to deal good damage – Staff + Scepter/Torch]
• Shatter mesmer (20/20/0/0/30) [attain excellent burst by summoning phantasms, letting them attack, then shattering them – in addition to your own attacks. Greatsword + Sword/Pistol recommended]
• “Balanced” mesmer (10/20/20/15/5) [my current PvE build; it fits 90% of all dungeon situations due to its great survivability and condition damage, but lacks heavy burst DPS and struggles with really large groups of mobs – I mainly use Staff + Sword/Pistol]

These are just ones I’ve tried out. There’s lots of mesmer builds out there. I’m truly astonished how many there are. Mine might not fit your playstyle because I’m in love with the staff, but it’s an all-around fun class to play, assuming you understand how to utilize your illusions and conditions to their fullest.

Keep in mind Mesmer is not designed to be an AOE damage class. If you’re looking for that, you’d be better off playing as an Engineer or Elementalist. Mesmers shine when they’re burning down a single target while hardly taking any damage themselves.

As a guy that’s leveling all classes I’ve found Mesmers the slowest so far, it’s great on PvP and probably once all traits are unlocked but the first 40 levels are pretty slow.

ill say this i think its pretty much where ur lvling i just started my new mes like 2 days ago really and im 39. once i hit kessex hills in the human world i got to 27 verry fast because i memorize the locations of all the events that give good exp and wat time they spawn after that i moved on to genderran fields which was even easier because all the good events were in 1 spot and just eithier minutes away from each others spawn or seconds. so i hit 35 fairly quickly then moved on to harathi and hit 39 in an hour. so it really depends on where ur lvling i say the human areas are the best to lvl in because u can simply memorize pretty much every location of the events and u can just hop on over to see if its up or not. ill be lvl 60 in no time. just got to hit 45 or 50 idk when ill leave harathi but then move on to bloodtide coast and thier is 2 events thier that are back to back and thier mobby events so u gain even more exp from them.

Learn where the best place to lvl up is at memorize those event locations make a estimate on wat time its going to spawn and ull be lvling every character like this to 80 with ease. and thats exactly wat i do with everyone of my characters.

CrazyAce.3842:

Mesmer is probably my favorite class, aside from the thief and warrior. There are simply so many ways you can play it, it’s utterly ridiculous. The number of viable builds is possibly the greatest I’ve seen in any GW2 class aside from warrior and elementalist (though every class has tons of viable builds).

Here’s just a few:

• Confusion mesmer (20/0/0/20/30) [Glamour type – my current sPVP and WvW build – Staff + Scepter/Torch]
• Condition mesmer (30/0/20/0/20) [Additional bouncing type w/ Staff + any weapon – I use Sword/Torch]
• Tank mesmer (0/5/30/30/5) [increases your own toughness, health, and overall suvivability but sacrifices a lot of DPS – not recommended if you want to deal good damage – Staff + Scepter/Torch]
• Shatter mesmer (20/20/0/0/30) [attain excellent burst by summoning phantasms, letting them attack, then shattering them – in addition to your own attacks. Greatsword + Sword/Pistol recommended]
• “Balanced” mesmer (10/20/20/15/5) [my current PvE build; it fits 90% of all dungeon situations due to its great survivability and condition damage, but lacks heavy burst DPS and struggles with really large groups of mobs – I mainly use Staff + Sword/Pistol]

These are just ones I’ve tried out. There’s lots of mesmer builds out there. I’m truly astonished how many there are. Mine might not fit your playstyle because I’m in love with the staff, but it’s an all-around fun class to play, assuming you understand how to utilize your illusions and conditions to their fullest.

Keep in mind Mesmer is not designed to be an AOE damage class. If you’re looking for that, you’d be better off playing as an Engineer or Elementalist. Mesmers shine when they’re burning down a single target while hardly taking any damage themselves.

You forgot Staff Shatter Mesmer which I would argue is more popular than GS Shatter build.

• Staff Shatter Mesmer (10/30/0/0/30) [attain excellent burst by summoning illusions, letting them attack, then shattering them – in addition to your own attacks. Staff + Sword/Pistol]

Xavi.6591:

You forgot Staff Shatter Mesmer which I would argue is more popular than GS Shatter build.

• Staff Shatter Mesmer (10/30/0/0/30) [attain excellent burst by summoning illusions, letting them attack, then shattering them – in addition to your own attacks. Staff + Sword/Pistol]

True but as I said, I can only give account of builds I’ve actually tried out. I’ll have to take a look at this one since I’m a big staff fan.

@takatsu, thanks for that last post, that was helpful.

I think different classes just make more sense to different people. Some classes feel natural from the start, some need a little time to adjust. I just finished lvling a guardian so for me this feels like quite a switch plus I don’t usually play casters so it’s not a style of play I’m used to.

I don’t think that most people saying that they are having a tough time are necessarily complaining about the class but just trying to learn.

My main PvE strategy is to split my DPS through phantasms and melee rather than trying to focus it or rely on AoE to melt away mobs. It works really well on my 80, and is working fairly well so far on my lvl 8. With both, I run a GS/Sword,Pistol combo and I make sure to spread my phantasm and clone summoning across multiple targets.

When facing a mob, for example, I’ll use GS3 to pull aggro, summon an iZerker for the AoE burst, switch targets, GS 2, GS 5 if necessary (or a roll dodge, depending on the situation), switch weapons, switch targets, iDuelist, Pistol 5, switch targets, Sword 3 to port to the new target, sword 2 (especially if there are multiple targets near), roll back (or Blink out, depending on what utilities I have for that specific fight), Shatter, and start all over again with the GS. I haven’t tried this with a Staff/Sword, Pistol, but Staff 2 would definitely make the retreat phase after sword melee a lot flashier.

While it might not do as much burst as a straight shatter build, it is definitely lots of fun. Especially when a group was trying to take Balthazar’s Temple last night; it was pretty great loading up Phantasms on different Vets, and then taking out the trash while they did their work.

I found leveling before level 40 difficult. Your main goal should be to get as many clones / phantasms into play as quickly as possible. This advice applies to PVE.

I leveled with a staff and the sword / pistol. 10 points in Dueling allows you to get Blade Training which decreases the blade skill cooldowns. Blade #3 becomes a go to skill. Not only does it generate a clone, but the clone rushes the target and immediately starts to tank for you.

For skills Mirror Images is a MUST. At level 20 you have access to 6 clone/phantasms per cycle (Mirror images generates 2, sword #2, pistol #4, staff #2, and staff #3)

The typical way I would start a fight is with to target staff #5 – chaos storm.
This awesome ability that adds random conditions to enemies and boons to you. If you are within the field pop mirror images and teleport away with staff #2.

This will give you chaos armor. There should also be 3 clones out.

At this point you can either kite with the staff or shatter the clones.

Another pattern I would use is based on the fact that sword #2 grants temporary invulnerability.

After the sword #3 skill generates a clone. Press 3 again and you will swap places with the clone (not always a good idea). Immediately use sword #2 and slash the enemy while you’re invulnerable. After that I would hit pistol #5 and run away.

The pistol #5 fires quickly and will stun the target for 1 second. This is great for escaping from a bad situation. Sometimes I would use pistol #5 followed by pistol # 4 to summon a phantasm.

As a final word of advice, the pistol #4 and staff #3 are great phantasms. They both will fire periodic volleys at the target. Because they attack from range and are rarely targeted the volleys just keep coming. Great for handling difficult targets. You can basically run in circles and let your illusions do the work.

CrazyAce.3842:

True but as I said, I can only give account of builds I’ve actually tried out. I’ll have to take a look at this one since I’m a big staff fan.

I can recomed this guide if you looking for a staff shatterbuild, some informative vids and vid guides in it aswell

/Osicat

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/guide-WvWvW-Shatter-cat/first

I want to throw my two cents in here.

I started a Mesmer one day and before I could blink, she was 35+. This was over the course of a weekend binge. My partner’s Mesmer is currently about mid 10’s and he started it yesterday. He had a blast leveling the little guy, and he was all alone. He’s not the most skilled when it comes to moving around the battle field, and even then, I hardly see him go down.

I use a staff/sceptre-gun combo. My staff gives me the first two illusions, a storm to protect them with. My gun gives me the last one of the opening set. I shatter them after the duellist un-loaded her first burst. By this time the storm should be ready again.

The sceptre gives me a steady stream of illusions when I feel lazy, or simply forget to switch weapons.

My utility skill bar can produce a set of 3 illusions at the drop of the hat, but those refreshes much slower than my weapon skills. I use those as escape routes. Drop all three illusions and blink away! I seem to be able to break any aggro this way and save myself some trouble when the fight gets too tough.

Like many has said, I do keep moving when I’m in a fight. I don’t ever stay put unless I have to (rezing ppl). I switch weapons as much as possible when I need to.

Aank.4837:

@takatsu, thanks for that last post, that was helpful.

I think different classes just make more sense to different people. Some classes feel natural from the start, some need a little time to adjust. I just finished lvling a guardian so for me this feels like quite a switch plus I don’t usually play casters so it’s not a style of play I’m used to.

I don’t think that most people saying that they are having a tough time are necessarily complaining about the class but just trying to learn.

np! It’s interesting bc i’ve shared the same things i said in that post to some other mesmers who are already level 80s but they never realized how to use the staff. Most would only shatter at most.

I agree with one of the posters, at lower levels I ran with mirror images for a while. While it is not vital because you can still do okay without it, without the clone on dodge, your illusion production is slower so the mirror images was like a quick cheat way. Once I hit level 30 i think, I took out the mirror images bc I was doing pretty good with updated gear and traits even without the clone dodge.

One other experience that I had was the same as the last posters. Even though i had alot of friends to play with I levelled really really fast solo. In fact I could go as far as to say mesmers are quite one of the best solo classes in PvE. While I was lower level playing in groups was difficult. It was difficult and frustrating to put out enough damage compared to other classes who would just use brute force and hack and slash. It was also difficult to find my role in a group. Was I doing support or using single target weapon skills like just a gs auto attack bc things died too fast or was I trying to tag as much as i could with an aoe zerker but phantasms might die in groups before they did significant damage.

My suggestion is to level solo. And you can level fast if you hit all the events and solo as much as u can. Challenge yourself and go to higher level maps and take on swarms and champion events. I found the mesmer to be extremely capable as well as scoring extra credit for higher level places. Challenging situations also helps develop your play style and skill with the mesmer. After all those levels in tough situations, things became really comfortable and intuitive.

In those lower levels it can be an awkward spot. Level solo if you can to train your mesmer play skill and there’s no pressure at all when you’re alone. Just do it til you handle the class well and then you will level fast.

Rashiakas.2459:

I really love the idea behind the class. I love the abilities, the tools and the style. I also played mesmer in pvp to rank 35, so I know the class pretty well.

Now in PVE? This class is horrible. I have to force myself to go on, because I read with level 40 it is getting better, but honestly I don’t see it (level 33 atm). No matter what specc, no matter whitch weapons, leveling is a pain.

Please change something. Give us better traits, fix broken ones, replace useless ones.

Just do something.

Just keep trying. Playing a mes is like riding a bike – the more you do it the better you’ll get at it. I also had that struggle at the beginning of my mesmer (with trying to figure out how to really kill/damage enemies in pve), but one level everything clicks, and all of a sudden by end game you can DESTROY \(owo)/ anything. Not to mention with all the clones you practically poop out, you can also send out enough distractions to run away from enemies constantly (if you don’t feel like fighting/map completing). Best advice I can give, even though cliché, is just go to an easy place, take whatever weapons you like/ are comfortable with, play around with them, and then build your traits around that. It’s a slow process but with patience and determination, (trust me) it’s well worth it. =w=
(I play mesmer in both pve and pvp and it’s hard for me to want to play any other class for either now)

Good Luck!

Mesmer with a staff is op as kitten in pve. All you have to do is 3 at your target then hit 5 and step in your aoe field hit 2 then spam 1 and rinse repeat for major pwnage.

I solo champs on my Mesmer and wvw is even more fun.

The only issue I could see anyone having with a Mesmer is aoe damage but you can get that with a shatter build.

I protect Hodgins in AC on mine at level 40 because the warrior in my group kept dying.

Just completed the run to level 80 on mine last night. Definatly tested my patience a few times. cant lie that there were sections where I was so frustrated I wanted to shelf it.
Main with a staff. secondary switches as I need. Usually sceptre/focus though. People say I should be sword/pistol but I don’t fancy it.

:/ My engie or warrior can rip up way easier, I don’t even have to think.
But I’m that silly sort of stubborn that I enjoy my mesmer more.

rotate between phantasm damage and shatter damage between each mob

Best i can tell the main issue is that the obvious big gun of mesmers, the shatter mechanic, can be neutralized by mobs simply by taking out your clones.

And conditions are very much RNG.

I find myself chaining mantra of pain at present…

Its fairly slow/difficult at the low levels compared to other classes, thats for sure. Low level guardian/warrior are a breeze tbh, super easy and quick.

Just think of it as an investment in order to get one of the best lvl 80 classes :P

I honestly hated leveling my mesmer before lvl 40. One of the main reasons I quit about 3 weeks after launch (I didn’t reroll because I had bought a bunch gems to buy bank and character bag slots on my mesmer and I didn’t want to do it again). Came back, craft leveld myself to like 65 and had a blast from 65-80. It’s so much more interesting and fun once you have the grandmaster traits such as illusionary persona and learning to position yourself safely for a 4 shatter without getting cleaved by AOE for example in dungeons or solo vs champion mobs.

Yes it’s possible to level a mesmer from 1-80 traditionally but 1-40 is going to be boring and painful as hell without the higher traits. I recently leveled a elementalist and it is a lot more engaging and interested at the lower levels than the mesmer.

I remember someone said somewhere either on the forums or the GW2 subreddit,

“Mesmers have like 20% of their full potential before lvl ~40, and they get the last 80% after they reach lvl 40+. Other classes have 80% of their full potential before level 40 and get the last 20% after 40+.”

I found the above so true.

Heh, since i made the above i have swapped to doing warden and berserker side by side, followed by shattering to apply either direct damage or confusion depending on what is off cooldown. seems to make a serious mess of the enemy, and the first profession where i have really felt the need to be active about weapon swapping.

I’m in the ‘never had a problem’ camp, and never understood this complaint. It comes up often enough that I have to assume there’s something to it. But that ‘something’, I think, is that people don’t understand the class. My mesmer was probably my 4th or 5th character, but was my first to 80. Absolutely love it, and always go back to her after I get bored leveling my alts. I play full condition/toughness with Staff and (currently) Greatsword.

The folks telling you that they routinely solo large groups or champions are not lying to you. I was shocked the first time I took a (higher than my level at the time) champ solo. I was thinking that help would come that never did. I’m glad for that, because it opened my eyes to what I could do with the class and I’ve never looked back.

Others have said it but I’ll repeat it – the secret is always be moving. Throw up some illusions, hit, move, hit, move, shatter, swap weapons and throw up a couple of more illusions, dodge, hit, shatter, swap weapons again, use mirror image if you have to and throw up more illusions, move, hit, move, hit, dodge, shatter…and so on. Most fights will have finished by about the time you swap weapons either the first or second time.

The whole idea is that mesmers dance across their battlefields, creating confusion and chaos with their every move. If you can get into that mindset then going from 1 to 80 is both simple and fun. So much so for me that I’ve considered killing off an alt to level a second one.

digiowl.9620:

Best i can tell the main issue is that the obvious big gun of mesmers, the shatter mechanic, can be neutralized by mobs simply by taking out your clones.

And conditions are very much RNG.

I find myself chaining mantra of pain at present…

I don’t agree. But this may be because I play for conditions. While my clones are up, they’re putting conditions on my target. If they get taken out, my target gets crippled and another condition…and, oh look! I’ve thrown up more clones to replace them while they were wasting time on my clones. Just as well though, I was just going to shatter that first set and throw more conditions on my target anyway…

That may apply once you get some levels in and can trait for it, but during the early levels the clones are at best a poor distraction (in that mobs regularly ignore them completely).

So until then your main source of condition damage will be staff skills, and they are decidedly random.

The only part that wouldn’t apply in the early game is the freebie cripple and condition on kill.

Yes, the condition dmg output in low game doesn’t compare to high game condition dmg, but the mobs you’re taking on aren’t exactly built to be combat monsters either. When mobs ignore your clones, that’s as much an advantage as when they get distracted by them because it means they can keep doing their thing, buys more time to wait out cd’s, etc.

Dunno, having a event boss or similar coming after you while your clones are basically worthless gets annoying fast. Mesmers do not have the hitpoints of the necromancer, nor the direct firepower of the elementalist, meaning that illusions are how we are supposed to stay alive by having the opponent confuse them for us. Seems to work much better in PVP than PVE at the moment tho.

digiowl.9620:

Dunno, having a event boss or similar coming after you while your clones are basically worthless gets annoying fast. Mesmers do not have the hitpoints of the necromancer, nor the direct firepower of the elementalist, meaning that illusions are how we are supposed to stay alive by having the opponent confuse them for us. Seems to work much better in PVP than PVE at the moment tho.

The part I bolded is, I think, where I think the difference is for folks who think early mesmer is hard vs those who think it is easy. While I think its great when the illusion confuses the mob, I’d say it isn’t what they’re there for. Illusions exist so that you can shatter them. While one shatter (and early in likely your summon skills) is on CD, swap weapon to throw up another couple of illusions shatter them, swap back and summon a couple more illusions (using utility skill if need be) and so on. Early levels should have all their shatters on near constant CD.

All the earlier points on staying mobile still apply.

seanairt.3795:

digiowl.9620:

Dunno, having a event boss or similar coming after you while your clones are basically worthless gets annoying fast. Mesmers do not have the hitpoints of the necromancer, nor the direct firepower of the elementalist, meaning that illusions are how we are supposed to stay alive by having the opponent confuse them for us. Seems to work much better in PVP than PVE at the moment tho.

The part I bolded is, I think, where I think the difference is for folks who think early mesmer is hard vs those who think it is easy. While I think its great when the illusion confuses the mob, I’d say it isn’t what they’re there for. Illusions exist so that you can shatter them. While one shatter (and early in likely your summon skills) is on CD, swap weapon to throw up another couple of illusions shatter them, swap back and summon a couple more illusions (using utility skill if need be) and so on. Early levels should have all their shatters on near constant CD.

All the earlier points on staying mobile still apply.

Ok, I think this might really hit the nail on the head. Because I, admittedly, was of those that would get frustrated by my illusions rarely catching any aggro. While what little PvP I’ve done on my mesmer, Illusions are really fun for messing with peoples heads, this is a perspective I need to play with a bit more in PvE.

Some tips for leveling:

-remap (and use!) your keyboard: GW2 keybinds
-use leap combos all the time to keep chaos armor up (like staff 5 then staff 2, or some ethereal combo field then mainhand sword 3, 3 again for leap then 2, wait two sec, dodge back)
-keep moving forever

A well played mesmer never will die)

@Aank:
True, but good luck for a new player just trying to get the basics of weapon effects, swapping, dodging, getting the feel for the CDs, etc. It’s too much for a new player to have to manage direct attacks, illusions, and shatters. Some casual players never learn to do the latter 2 effectively. Yeah, the mesmer is supposed to be a harder class to play, but requiring that much early on is bad design.

And the current balance changes that encourage even high level players to use more shattering only compounds the problem for those that don’t want to shatter spam or aren’t good at it. Yeah, being optimal might require heavy shattering, but it should be reasonably viable to not rely on heavy shatters, too (for more than just a few builds anyway).

Give me a link to a thread where I can actually see proof of someone playing a mesmer 1-40 in a way that is on par with other classes. I would love to be proven wrong.

I killed mobs 3-4 at a time that were 5-7 levels higher than me from levels 15-40. Below 15 it was more like 2 mobs that were 3-4 levels higher than me.

I figure I would have leveled faster if I killed mobs that were +1 to +2 levels to me.

Generally speaking, the Mesmer class requires a different play style and approach than other classes. It has a steeper learning curve for minimum performance level compared to most classes.

If you get it, you get it.

If you don’t, you don’t.

Shrug.

I agree with OP. I have a lvl 6o Mesmer and it’s just plain lame. The mesmer doesn’t pack enough punch to mow down pve mobs. All of my utilities are clones, I spam clone after clone along with my weapon skills and it takes forever to kill kitten.

Ok here are the 2 biggest things in my opinion. Now keep in mind a week ago I was on the VERY hard to level a mesmer side of the argument. Now I am on the mesmer OP at leveling side.
1) Watch all 4 of these videos. Yes they are LONG. Yes the are what moved me from having problems to making it easy. Take the time and watch them all they are great

(done by mrprometheus)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eZ0NNd7b60

2) and this is where maybe people who are saying it was easy can help out. There seems to be a HUGE lack of guidance for people in the 1-40 range. those vids are fantastic but they as well as most posts are guides for people at level 80 to make builds. What we need from experienced mesmer players is what do do in the 1-20 and 20-40 range. What talents can we make use of when we only have 10 or 20 points to asssign. The issue I think is people read build guides for level 80 and try to play that way but are missing 80% of the talents that make that build work.

I so far started first 5 points in illusions to get the cooldown reductions. Then 10 points in domination. Not saying that is the best way to go but seems to be working for me. Next I want to get the extra bounce skill at 20 in illusion and the extra damage from GS in dominion… also level 20 i think.

no idea if this is a good way to go just that it is working for me. Most of the difference though was understanding the class and I got that from the videos ( all 4 of them)

Would love to hear from experienced mesemers on how they assigned there first 10 then 20 then 30 trait points and so on.

Gaiawolf.8261:

@Aank:
True, but good luck for a new player just trying to get the basics of weapon effects, swapping, dodging, getting the feel for the CDs, etc. It’s too much for a new player to have to manage direct attacks, illusions, and shatters. Some casual players never learn to do the latter 2 effectively. Yeah, the mesmer is supposed to be a harder class to play, but requiring that much early on is bad design.
…

The game doesn’t require you to do any of the things we’ve been telling you. It’ll let you stand in one spot and spam the auto attack if that’s all you want to do. But you won’t be playing effectively, and so the game will understandably be harder for you.

I don’t agree that there’s a “bad design” in this case…the game goes out of its way to ease you into play on every class, and gives you time to work out a play style before pushing you into slightly harder content. Complaining that you have to watch shatter CDs is like complaining that you have to watch your initiative for the thief, or adrenaline for the warrior, or even that shadow state thingy for the necromancer – things that are a fundamental aspect to playing those classes effectively. Its no different at all for the mesmer.

I have to say I’m quite surprised to find that so many people consider Mesmer to be a terrible leveling profession when it comes to PVE. The first character I took to level cap was a Ranger. I capped that character a few weeks ago and started looking at the other professions to level next and decided on Mesmer just because I thought the cloning mechanic was pretty cool. The first thing I did when I decided on playing Mesmer was to Google up some play guides and that led me directly to mrprometheus’ Comprehensive Mesmer Guide(luckily in hindsight it seems). I watched all of the first two videos before doing any serious playing. Yes, they are long videos but they are full of very astute insight into the profession.

My Mesmer is now level 26 so I’m still in the early phase people say is so difficult and I’m cruising through much easier than I did on my Ranger. Maybe by comparison Ranger is even worse than Mesmer and I just happened to pick the two toughest professions as my primary ones, but I’m leveling at the same pace as my friends who are playing other professions and it certainly isn’t my experience that it takes 30 seconds to kill most mobs like so many are saying.

This is the setup I’m current using.

Traits:
1
0
10-V
0
5

For gear I only use pieces that increases Power or Condition Damage. I have enough survivability from the Chaos branch as it is.

So far the levelling experience has been a piece a cake after following mrprometheus’ advice.

[quote=1051537;Rojek.8230:
So far the levelling experience has been a piece a cake after following mrprometheus’ advice.[/quote]

I think it is understanding how to use the class… people that have watched that video… which I have to say again is VERY good and detailed are able to level with no issues.

Mesmer is lame before level 40. It isn’t hard, but it’s definitely lame. Mesmer more than maybe any otehr class depends on traits to make the class interesting. Until you have access to the level 20 traits it is pretty boring. Just use GS/staff and you won’t have any problems with normal content but it’s very dull and the lack of good aoe makes it very slow compared to a lot of classes (e.g. warrior) that can just blow through 5+ mobs at once constantly without really thinking about it.

no idea if this is a good way to go just that it is working for me.

5 points in Illusion and 10 points in Dom is probably the only “mandatory” points to get started off. I’ve posted this awhile back in other “low level Mesmer 101” threads, but the basic advice is as follows:

1. Before level 7, use Scepter so you have some illusions out.
2. After level 15, use Staff/GS until you get a good feel for the class.
3. First 5 points go into Illusion.
4. Next 10 points go into Dom for 20% Mind Wrack or 15% Illusion Damage (pick whichever style you like).

That’s it. Everything else is learning how to actually play the class. After level, what, 45 or so you can get the basic spread of points to pick up Deceptive Evasion as well which is useful to further learn the class, but that’s miscellaneous. At this point you also have enough trait points to branch out and use whatever weapon combination you like.

Thats funny that you mention that. I think i used scepter untill about 8 then went to GS/staff which I am still using.

Seriously? this is a joke, the mesmer is not hard to lvl at all. I will agree that they are not a profession I would recommend to new players because they are not as straight forward as say a ranger or a warrior, but in exchange for being a lil bit tougher to get used to they can be that much more deadly than an profession that anyone can pick up and be decent at with minimal effort put into mastering the play style. My main is a lvl 80 Asuran mesmer and lvling was sooooo easy it was what made me fall in love with the mesmer. The fact that kiting is sooo easy with clones acting as a damage buffer for you means you are way more safe than other classes.

Its so easy to lvl a mesmer in fact that because I grew tired of being an Asura(I know they are really cute and all but Im a Sylvari player through and through something about that race just draws me in, I love being Sylvari) to reroll as a Sylvari mesmer though I dnt have the heart to delete my lil floppy eared hooligan. Mind you I did this on the 15th and just playing at night when I get home from work Ive alrdy hit lvl 26 in no time at all. However for a 80 mesmer player who has gotten used to his final build it does feel a bit wonky for me being unable to utilize every thing my Asura can do but it in no way makes lvling difficult for me. All i had to do was just adjust my low lvl play style to better utilize what I had available.

At 80 I run a GS and a Sword/Pistol and love it but for right now Im running GS and Staff switching out Staff from time to time with Sword/Focus(i.e speed buffs for mobility or JP’s) or Sword/Pistol(i.e. solo champs or for when I will be in dungeons) depending on the situation with Mirror Images, Decoy and Blink as my utilities and I will have Time Warp asap.

A big aspect of playing the mesmer well is knowing how to manage your clones efficiently. If you are blowing CDs on your shatters “foolishly”(and I use that word loosely, not tryin to offend anyone I just mean that you are wasting CD’s for little gain due to not fully understanding the class which comes through experience and research) that means you are in turn blowing all of your illusion generating(clones and phantasms are classified as illusions) CD’s as well meaning you are essentially 1v1’in the mob your fighting or 1v*(#of mobs in the pack you aggroed) and as a light armor profession even if you were godly at dodge timing you would be in for some trouble.

Mesmer lvling is also really cheap you don’t even need to keep up with gear lvls as much as I feel is required with the other classes(have an 80 ranger that when lvling always always felt severely underpowered and was tough to lvl if he wasnt wearing lvl appropriate gear). I went from lvl 1-15 on my current lvl 26 Sylvari mesmer wearing lvl 1 armor and weapons no problem and now Im wearing lvl 15 gear until lvl 35 then I will be farming AC in lvl 35 gear up until about 60 or 70 since there is no real need for me to spend money on gear when I don’t need it until around then, did the same thing on my first mesmer as well though I admit it was more an issue of slipping the mind than intentional the 1st time around but it is doable and not difficult if you understand the class and have figured out YOUR playstyle, I cant stress enough how important finding YOUR play style is and not just with a mesmer its with every profession and no profession can be played the same way. If you are used to an engi you can’t pick up a mesmer and play it as an engi, it just wont work

So to all those out there having problems with lvling, OP included, learn the profession, get creative and find out what just “clicks” for you with weapons and builds if you are truly interested in playing a mesmer because they are great fun when you get used to them.

Just created a Mesmer a few days ago and am having a blast leveling in PVE really.. It’s so smooth tbh.. Just have to think about the fact that you’re a clothy, so be careful..

Anyway, compared to my Main (Elementalist), it’s pretty much a walk in the park

Compared to my warrior, it’s indeed a little harder, but nothing too bad

I thought my mesmer was hard from levels 5 to 35, but I think Engineer may have it topped. I started leveling an engineer alt and it’s painful so far to level 20. We’ll see if it picks up like mesmer did.